Date: 19th December 2021

Author: Julia Nasri

I was at a business networking lunch last week in Ras Al Khaimah. It was my first time meeting many of the people seated at the table, and the question, “What do you do?” immediately came up. After mentioning that I am the director of a translation company, I asked if any of the people around me have ever looked for translation services in the UAE. I was surprised that almost all of them had used a translator before in this country for translations like certificates, websites, business reports, and medical reports. I followed up asking about their experience, if they felt like they received a good quality translation. I was shocked to hear that many of them doubted the quality of their translations.

When deciding what kind of translation company you want to use for yourself or your business, there are a few things that you can consider. First is the location of the company. Usually, it is best to use a company in the country where you are located because they will understand the needs of the market. This is especially important regarding legal translations. Legal translations need to be adapted and accepted by the government in which the company is located. A translator or translation company who is certified in the United States might not be recognized by a government outside of the United States. Usually, each government has some sort of a regulating body or standardization system for certified/sworn translations. In the United Arab Emirates, translations are sworn if they are done by a translator who has passed a certification by the Ministry of Justice. 

Second is the specialization of the company. For example, if you are looking for a video game translation, you should find a company that specializes in that field of translation. There are certain companies around the world that specialize in particular fields, and there are other companies that cover a wider range of fields and specializations. The option you choose to go with should be based on the nature of your translation project.

Third, you should consider what languages you need translated. Just like companies can specialize in a certain field of translation, they can also specialize in certain language pairs. This can give them an advantage when it comes to marketing themselves to potential clients. Many translation companies, however, offer a range of languages to better serve a larger variety of clients.

The last thing that a client should consider is the price of the translation. When paying for a translation, you are not only paying for the document, but you are paying for the expertise of the translator. If you are translating a highly specialized document, it is important and have a translator who understands that specialized field. One excellent example is medical translations. For medical translations, the best person for the job is either someone who is trained as a translator and has experience doing medical translations and researching medicinal terms, or to employ somebody who has medical experience through research or work and is also a language expert.  If the translator does not have experience in medical translations, many of the terms and abbreviations won’t be understood, therefore making it a bad translation. Just like you would pay extra to receive an expert’s opinion in your own field, the price of an expert translation could be higher than if it was being done someone who is just bilingual.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, Idiomatic Translations Dubai does its best to ensure that we are providing a fair price for our clients while guaranteeing a high standard of quality and expertise from our translators. When assigning a translator to a language project, we consider their previous experience, their studies, and the target audience of the translation. This attention to detail from our project managers has helped us to earn an ISO standard of quality for our translations. Our high standard of quality means that our clients are always satisfied with the final draft of their translation. If you are looking for a quality translation done by one of our language experts, please contact us at [email protected] or submit your document for a free quote directly at our website here.